How to Lock Apps With Fingerprint on LeEco Le 2 and Max 2

20 Jun 2016

Android devices with a fingerprint lock hardware have an upper hand in the market when compared to other devices which don’t come with the special hardware. Fingerprint security might increase the security risk of your device as far as my opinion is concerned, but unless you want to build a Fort Knox around your Android, fingerprint sensors provide an easy way to unlock the device and is better than swiping on the screen or showing your face to the camera in different angles.

But it’s our nature to get more and the fingerprint lock was not only limited to the lock screen, but developers extended the feature to different apps as well. However, there are some devices where like LeEco running on EUI 5.x where you don’t get the app lock feature by default from the phone-maker.

According to news in the LeEco forum, the EUI is rumored to come with a built-in fingerprint app locker, but the wait might be too long. Thankfully, the new devices from the LeEco that are the Le 2 and Max 2 are built on EUI over Android Marshmallow 6.0.1 and, therefore, third party apps are able to read the fingerprint hardware and thus can be used to lock apps. So let me show you how to get that done.

Securing Individual Apps using Fingerprint Lock

As stated earlier, the feature will require a 3rd party app to be installed on your device and while there are quite a few apps that claim to get the job done, we will be using an app called CM App Lock Fingerprint Unlock. After the app is installed, you will be asked to set up a default PIN or pattern for the app and then give it the permission to draw over other apps in order to show the lock screen.

Once all the necessary permissions are in place, you will be asked to choose the apps you wish to lock on your phone. Some of the essential apps will be selected by default, but you should select all the apps that you feel should be locked by the second layer of fingerprint security. Having done that, open the app settings and make sure there’s a check against Fingerprint lock. That’s all, now when you launch the app, you will be shown the lock screen to lock using fingerprint or pattern.

Additional Features

The apps will remain unlocked unless you re-lock the device, but that can be changed from the settings where you can change the lock mode to lock immediately. Another cool feature of the app is that it emails intruder’s photo to your default Google email address to notify when someone was trying to gain unauthorized access to your protected apps.

It’s highly unlikely that you get locked out of your apps if you forget your password or pattern as you always have your fingerprint sensors to back you up. But still, whatever be the case, you can reset your password using your Google Account credentials. You can also lock device radio like Bluetooth and Wi-Fi. Users who love to customize can also download and select themes.

Important Note: Don’t forget to activate CM App Lock and Fingerprint Unlock as Device Administrator in the security settings to prevent unauthorized app uninstallation and make it totally secure.

Conclusion

So that was how you can lock apps on the LeEco Le 2 and Max 2. The app free, without any ads or limitations and comes with a variety of customization features making it the best 3rd party apps to lock apps using a fingerprint. Hopefully, things might change with EUI 6, but till then you can use the trick and once the Le 1s and Le Max are updated to Marshmallow, they will also be able to join the party.